I've been trying to pack in as much cooking with tomatoes as I can before the official end of summer.

Yesterday I was browsing through my friend Chitra's blog The ABCD's of Cooking for inspiration and came across her wonderful-sounding post for paneer with sun-dried tomato curry, which used both fresh and dried tomatoes. I had eaten a ton of curries in my life but never tried one using sun-dried tomatoes (to my knowledge), an ingredient I buy twice a week in bulk and can't get enough of. Needless to say, I was quickly sold.

You may remember Chitra from some of my earlier blog posts. She was my co-conspirator for Tangra Summer, an Indian-Chinese pop-up dinner we put on in August in Brooklyn. She was also the wiz behind the naan breakfast pizza I made back in June, and just an all-around great resource for ideas for vegetarian meals with tons of flavor. So it goes without saying that I was immediately excited to try out this curry.

I love that this recipe can be made with either paneer or tofu. Since I was headed to the Indian grocery store for shopping anyway, and because I'm a cheese addict, I decided to pick up a block of paneer cheese. Though I'm definitely going to try this with tofu soon when I feel like a lighter dish.

Whenever I teach cooking classes around New York, one of the questions I get asked most frequently by students is about healthy cooking oils to use. A question which used to be pretty tough to answer.

In Chinese cooking, the most common oils to use are peanut and canola; the wok is the most common cooking vessel, and to stir-fry with it you need oils that are good for very high temperatures. While I don't think peanut and canola oil are bad for you in moderate amounts, many commercial brands are chemically processed. Plus, rapeseed (used to make canola oil) is often sprayed with pesticides, so you'd need to look for organic, expeller-presssed canola oil.

Olive oil is okay for medium-heat cooking, but often Chinese cooking requires higher heat. Toasted sesame oil, which has a very low smoke point, should only be used in sauces or added towards the end of cooking, not as the main cooking oil.

So for many months I've been on the quest to find a neutral-tasting cooking oil that would be good high-heat cooking. Earlier in the summer I came across Chosen Food's avocado oil, a cold-pressed and naturally refined oil made from Mexican Hass avocados that has a smoke point of 500 degrees, higher than that of either peanut or canola. I had to give it a try, and Chosen Foods and I decided to partner together on a post.

A few weeks ago I had been lamenting the fact that I hadn’t had a chance to bake much this summer. The heat wave in July just about zapped all the cooking energy out of me. Summers should be filled with homemade pies, cobblers, and sorbets, but I had been resorting to the store-bought versions instead. Which was sad, given all the bright beautiful fruits in the markets.

Or as my friend Dave said a few weeks ago,”It’s one of life’s great tragedies that the best season for food is the worst season for cooking.”

But August? August has been almost perfect, weather-wise. Some nights it has even started to feel like fall, which I’m 100% happy about. So when my friend Veronica asked me to be a part of the Cherry Challenge that her company OXO was sponsoring with Northwest Cherry Growers, to be sent 10 lbs of cherries and equipment and make cherry-filled goodies, I was game.

I hadn't until a few weeks ago. At the Summer Fancy Food Show last month, my friend Veronica gave me a couple cloves of Korean aged black garlic to experiment with at home. And wow, is it versatile!

(And you don't even have to go to a Korean specialty store to find it. Aged black garlic is available on Amazon in both large and small bags.)

A popular ingredient in Korean cooking in recent years, black garlic gets its color and flavor from fermentation. Whole bulbs are fermented at high temperatures inside machines that regulate and change the temperature and humidity levels during the 30-day process. According to The Washington Post, the fermentation process results in high antioxidant levels and even cancer-curing properties. It's also now a hot new ingredient for chefs in New York, Chicago, and San Francisco.

For the last two weeks, we've been trying to survive an intense heatwave here in New York. As in, temperatures ranging from 90 to 100 degrees F every single day. I've been trying to keep cool by working next to my wonky AC, though unfortunately I can't glue myself to it.

Walking around outside any time before 7pm can be quite brutal. As is waiting for the subway any time of the day. When you look forward to the sun setting so the temps can cool down to 91 degrees, that's a bad sign.

Yu Chou basil coconut curry from July's Tangra. Our next dinner will be Aug 23 at 61 Local and tix now available at tangrasummeraug2015.eventbrite.com 🍅🍠🍑🌽🍆 pic reframed from @chitra

Icy cold raspberry smoothie, so needed for today ☀️

Love this mini print by @jordangraceowens. Going onto office wall ❤️

Dumpling totes finally back in stock! Fulfilling pre-orders now...nab yours for summer beaching, farmers market-ing, an picnicking before they sell out again ☀️👙🍑🍇🍉

Cold sesame noodles, perfect for summer. Learn to make the perfect version & many other dishes in my online class with #Craftsy. This week use this link for $10 off www.craftsy.com/ext/DianaKuan_5211_D

Visiting the Society of Illustrators. Love this piece done with merlot, ink, & gouache. Must start drawing more with wine. 🍷✒️🎨

Two months ago I traveled to Denver to film an online class series with #Craftsy. It was the perfect project for reaching & teaching techniques to home cooks outside of NY. Today I'm excited to announce Chinese Takeout Favorites just launched! And you can also use this link for exclusive $20 (50%!) off this week. Enjoy! www.craftsy/ext/DianaKuan_5211_H